An Apology For Deputies

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

January 18, 1992

I APOLOGIZE. The Orange County Sheriff's Office will never apologize to the homeless people in east Orange County for trashing their ''homes,'' but someone needs to. I am and Orange County resident, homeowner, businessman, voter and taxpayer. To think that I helped pay for the equipment and training of the deputies who trashed the only things they have and kicked them when they were down. I am ourtraged by the deputies' actions. If they did the same to me, I would have fought to the death to stop them.

These people are fellow human beings. So what if they do not own a real home or pay taxes? Nothing gives those deputies the right to do what they did to those people. The same pocket that helped pay those deputies is also supposed to help those people, not hurt them.

Gestapo tactics belong in the history books, not in Orange County, not in my country. The deputies not only trashed the few belongings of these people, they scared me to death. They could just as easily do the same to me. I am sorry for these people, and now I am afraid of those deputies.